An illustrated diary of an artist’s working life and history--new creations documented in progress alongside past work shared and discussed as souvenirs of an ongoing quest to improve (and understand) my capacity for expression. Welcome to a journal of my art-making adventures!

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Life Painting 4-14-07 (Part 1)

A snapshot of the painting so far--thisstate represents about two hours ofphysically moving paint on the canvas.

A snapshot of the painting-in-progressand studio/model stand setup.

I began an oil painting from a model today at the atelier of three fellow artists, Bruce Fee, Fred Poore and Gary Melvin, known collectively as the Whiskey Row Artist Trio. One of our favorite models curled into a lovely pose she recreated from an earlier gesture/short pose session held months ago. I brought in my original drawing of this pose to use as a guide, every artist attending today found a viewpoint they favored---and away we went!I started this piece slowly, using burnt umber to streak in large masses of tone, then wiping them back out and restating the large shapes until I felt both the gesture and the composition were working well. I then mixed a batch of a cool blue-tinted gray on my palette and blended this as needed with the warmer colors to lower the tones and keep the hues quiet and harmonious as I began refining the forms and light and dark shapes. After painting for several years with student grade Daler Rowney Georgian oils, I've switched to artist's quality M. Graham Oils, which contain much finer and stronger pigments. The unaccustomed strength of the Graham paints requires careful mixing on the palette to control the tonal values of the colors and avoid an (in this case) unwanted circus poster intensity. The rich luster of the Graham pigments aren't muddied or dimmed by this mixing though, they retain a subtle radiance even in very low tonal harmonies.We meet again tomorrow morning for another three hour session--I'll post the results.

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About Me

Born 1960. Began selling drawings to my classmates in grade school, gradually enlarging this scheme into a career as a professional artist. Illustrated thousands of comic book pages for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and other publishers from 1981 through 1996—switched to storyboarding for Warner Bros, Disney and other TV animation studios for the next decade. Over the last few years I’ve shifted toward a slower pace and concentrated on refining and improving my illustration work for print, choosing projects carefully and devoting more time to personal painting and drawing. I live and work in the mountains of northern Arizona with my endlessly captivating wife and our two astonishingly delightful children.